John A. Lacko | Special to the GazettePete Hoekstra speaks Wednesday during a lunch meeting of the Kalamazoo Republican Women's Association at the Beacon Club in Portage.

PORTAGE — If there is a time for Republicans to make their case for a smaller federal government and less spending, it’s in the 2012 election, former congressman and current U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra said Wednesday in Portage.

”We need to talk about core Republican issues,” Hoekstra told a group of about 40 people gathered at the Beacon Club for the monthly meeting of the Kalamazoo Republican Women’s Association.

Those issues, Hoekstra said, include getting people to work, allowing them to make their own decisions and “shredding bureaucracy and becoming more efficient” in government.

“I think a lot of people have hit the wall today,” said Hoekstra, who is one Republican trying to get the nomination to run against current U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat.

“When you are on the verge of losing control of your health care decisions ... you are on the verge of losing the opportunity to provide for your family by getting a high-quality, high-paying job. You’re losing control of all these things and handing it over to bureaucrats.”

Hoekstra said that 2006 — when Stabenow was last reelected — was the wrong time to have such a debate.

“This is exactly the right time to have the debate,” he said Wednesday. “A government that spends $1.5 trillion more than it collects in taxes, that’s not sustainable ... .This is the opportunity to refocus and reshape America.”

After his talk, Hoekstra told the Kalamazoo Gazette that the challenge for his campaign will be exposing Stabenow’s record.

“Once we start talking about her record, that she has consistently been the most liberal senator in the United States Senate and how out of touch that position is with the voters of Michigan ... and how she really hasn’t done much in the U.S. Senate to promote the interest of Michigan, I think it creates a real opportunity.”

“This is a very winnable seat,” he added. “Debbie can be beat. and I think we’re the campaign to do it.”

Hoekstra compared the opportunity in 2012 to when Republicans took control of the House and Senate in 1995.

He also compared the gridlock in Congress this year to the partisan battles in 1995 and 1996. But there is a difference, he said.

“In 2011, we don’t have someone who is coming out of the White House recognizing that there is a new reality, who recognizes that it takes a legislature and a president to make things happen,” Hoekstra said.

“Bill Clinton recognized that he seized the opportunity; he worked with the Republican House, the Republican Senate.

“We had an era of prosperity,” Hoekstra said. “It wasn’t always pretty; the bottom line was that we got things done.”

Hoekstra, of Holland, is one of several candidates vying to get the GOP nomination to run against Stabenow. He is currently leading in the polls, according to Michigan Information & Research Service, Inc.

The Michigan primary for November’s U.S. Senate election will be held in August.

Hoekstra, who served 18 years in Congress, appears to have gained some ground in a potential match against Stabenow. Stabenow, a two-term Democrat, is leading Hoekstra by 48 percent to 42 percent, up 4 percentage points from an October poll that showed Hoekstra trailing by 47 percent to 38 percent, according to an EPIC/MRA poll.

Brian Kincaid, 50 of Portage, said he hasn’t decided who he will support in the primary but is leaning to Hoekstra. He said he was impressed with the former congressman’s support of energy initiatives such as the Keystone XL pipeline.

He also likes Hoekstra’s previous experience in Congress. “It’s a tremendous benefit,” he said.